Construction History
Blue Row Cottages were built in 1806. John Powell, the mason, who built Blue Row and did much of the local restoration, may have owned the plot of land in 1802 (B on the inclosure map). He certainly had an interest in it from 1806. Burnt House Homestead is just to the east of Blue Row, and its Close extended down to the Griffin. The lane down the side of the cottages was called Watery Lane (the stream runs under it now).
The row of originally 4 cottages was built right next to the Church and the Norman Motte and Bailey. The walls comprise two layers of Hornton stone, filled with stone rubble in between. The roofs were blue slate. The front doors of the cottages were on the east side, facing the gardens. (This is the opposite side to the church.) Access to these front doors was via a path that ran straight across the front of all four cottages, there being a gate through the wall at number 1 (nearest the road), There was also access through a gate from the path (marked in yellow) at the end of the gardens. This second path, and the lane (blue and green on plan below), had no registered owner but with rights for Blue Row & Old Farm Cottage residents to pass and repass. Old Farm cottage had a door onto this path, and Blue Row residents could enter from the yellow path along the grass path leading to their front doors.
THE GARDENS
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Before the time of the 1976 sales of the cottages, number 3 and 4 had already been combined into one cottage and the tenant was also gardening number 2's allotment, giving the owner produce from the enlarged plot. This was because the lady who had been the occupant of number 2 was too infirm to manage her plot. However, the grassy paths remained at this time.
Each of the original four cottages was provided with a pigsty on the western side at some stage after the building of the row of cottages. There were no main windows, nor doors, on this side, just a small scullery window for each cottage. The front doors all faced east, towards the gardens. There was (and is) an archway, marked in red on the plan above, between number 2 and 3, accessible by all the residents, from the gardens and front doors, through to the pig styes, and the lane beyond. (Watery Lane.) There was a low blue slate roof across all four properties, which gave the cottages their name (and not, as we originally assumed, from the vivid blue paint on the front doors, which was a much later addition.)
These would have been the original plans:
At the northerly side of number 4, there was a stone built building, which housed a bake oven. We think this was for shared use, but whether just for the four cottages or for wider use, we don't know. And, possibly a later addition, to the north of this there was a brick and stone built structure. This housed 4 outdoor earth lavatories, two each side, back to back, with wooden plank seats with central holes. Although we don't believe there was any drainage from these, (unless directly into the stream?), these must have provided the residents with a welcome innovation.
This is our imagining of what it may have looked like from the west, with a pig in the pigsty attached to number 4, and cows in the castle field. On the left of the main building is the stone building which housed the bake oven.
Regarding the pigsties, we don't know whether these were open pens, as imagined above. It is perhaps more likely they were a slightly cosier roofed outhouse, with an door or opening on the scullery window side, or that they were roofed at a later stage. (We can surmise this opening in the wall, because there is still only a single layer of stone blocking up these gaps in 3/4, when the outbuildings were later incorporated into the structure.)
Inside, each cottage had a principal room downstairs, about 12' square, or 3.75 metres square, off which was the scullery, on the west side, separated from the main room by a wattle and daub wall, and the steep wooden staircase just by the front door. An inglenook fireplace provided heating and cooking facilities. Several old iron cooking pots were found in the gardens, although most were broken. The floors downstairs were simple stone flags, and the cottages were built without foundations. During very wet weather, water which should have passed underground in a culvert used to flood the cottage floors. (We were told they flooded 'every 12 years' but can't verify this! We were certainly flooded soon after our purchase in 1976. However, we took steps to avoid a repeat.) The downstairs rooms had (and have) one central wooden beam (perhaps an old ship's mast) which supports exposed crossbeams in a mixture of woods, presumably whatever was to hand. Between these cross beams, there were wattle and daub ceilings.
The staircase led to the low ceilinged upper storey. Each cottage would have housed two bedrooms, though these were separated only by curtains, and the one furthest from the staircase would have to have been reached through the other. The chimney breast may have provided some warmth upstairs, but otherwise it can be imagined it was pretty cold in winter. The floors in the upper storey comprised wide elm floor boards laid simply on the cross beams. Two of the rooms, in nos. 2 and 3, backed on to each other above the archway.
The first structural changes: four cottages become three
As far as we know, the cottages remained like this for the best part of 150 years without any significant alteration, apart from the addition of the outside lavatories. Each of the two openings in the brick building seen here led to two of the earth toilets. These were still present in 1976, though no longer in use for their original purpose.
In Victorian times, in number 4, the inglenook fireplace was blocked up and a brick Victorian fireplace built in it. Later, in the 1930s, a typical tiled 1930s style fireplace was built in front of that. A mains water supply and electricity must have been installed into the cottages at some stage in the 20th century, we believe between 1950 and 1970. We don't know if the oven in the bakehouse was still in use by then, but its main use latterly seems to have been as a coal and wood store. The pigsties may have been incorporated into each cottage during this time, or perhaps earlier, by opening a doorway between each sty and the main room. Certainly, this had been done in No. 3, to create a simple kitchen. (Photo from later renovations.)
Major changes only happened in the early 1960s. We know the following changes were made at this time.
1) Because the ceiling heights were too low for mid 20th century people, the whole roof was raised. New roof trusses were installed above the existing ones, and the roofs were tiled instead of using the much more expensive blue slate. In the bedrooms, the original main trusses can still be seen. You can see them in this photograph taken during later building work in number 4.
2) In addition, in numbers 3 and 4, the downstairs floors were lowered by about 12cm. We know roughly by how much, as part of the original floor remains in number 4 with the original flags in place. The new floors were simple cement floors. The ceilings are still not very high, especially under the beams.
3) Numbers 3 and 4 were made into a single dwelling by knocking through a narrow gap on each floor. Downstairs, this gap went through the inglenook fireplace in number 3, with a door leading to the room backing onto it in number 4, and was thus against the western wall. Upstairs, the gap was on the other side of the chimney breast, on the east side. Part of the bedroom area in number 3 was sacrificed to make an internal bathroom, partly over the archway. Thus the premises became a single dwelling with 3 bedrooms, two in the original number 4 (still only separated by a curtain), and 1 in number 3.
4) A septic tank was dug between the gardens for number 3 and 4, to take all waste water and sewage. It is assumed this took all waste water from the cottages.
5) And in number 3, a Raeburn stove was installed to provide heat in the main room, as well as hot water.
Numbers 1 and 2 remained as two separate dwellings at this time. The staircases in all the cottages remained on the east side, i.e. the side with all the main windows.
CHANGES TO BLUE ROW COTTAGES SINCE 1976
Phase l - New resident owners
In 1976, a major change occurred: Blue Row Cottages were put up for sale by their owners, the Harrises of Swerford Park. Until this time, all the cottages had been rented, often to workers at the estate. Indeed, number one was sold to Miss Blacker, who was the secretary to the estate. This was the first of the cottages to be sold. Number 2 and numbers 3/4 were sold towards the end of that year.
None of the 3 dwellings was by this time truly fit for purpose by modern living standards, and building work ensued in all of the cottages to provide more comfortable and practical homes. However, all the new owners were determined to preserve, as far as possible, many of the charming original features. Most of this work was done concurrently, with the then youthful occupants of 2 and 3 enthusiastically sharing knowhow and each other's company, while doing much of the building work themselves.
Common renovation
Mains drainage had recently come to the village, so all 3 cottages were plumbed to take advantage of this.
Internal bathrooms were installed/modernised, and kitchens updated.
Central heating was installed
Front doors were created/modernised on the western side of the cottages. The former front doors became 'back doors' leading onto the gardens.
Inglenooks were restored / exposed. In number 4, it was not known whether the inglenook remained, as all that was visible was the 1930s fireplace. Once some of the modern plaster had been bludgeoned off, though, it was clear that the beam remained above, so there was a good chance the original fireplace was still there behind.
A few more enthusastic swipes with a pick-axe removed the 1930s fireplace and the Victorian one found behind it.
Some staircases were moved to the western side of the buildings. This required the demolition of the original staircases on the east side - this is the one in No.4 being removed.
Specific changes
In order to increase the living space, and make provision for better bathrooms, the former pigsties attached on the western wall of numbers 1 and 2 were demolished, and replaced with double storey extensions housing a kitchen on the ground floor and bathroom above.
The Raeburn stove from number 3 was gifted to number 2, and was installed in the kitchen of their new extension.
In number 4 the downstairs old wattle and daub partitions were removed to make a larger living room, effectively removing the old scullery area, while upstairs new partitions were built using wooden beams and plasterboard, to create two enclosed bedrooms and a landing area (as seen in progress in an earlier photo).
Gardens
The garden plots were re-designed so that each cottage had its own long thin plot immediately outside its own back door. This was done in a very co-operative way. The owners looked at the deeds plans, and could see that there was a potential dividing line through the grass path between 2 and 3, exactly perpendicular to the line of the cottage. So a long string and various measuring devices were used to mark this boundary, and the owner of number 2 dug in tall flags to make a retaining boundary wall. (The entire plot slopes down towards the northern boundary.) The boundary between 1 and 2 was only slightly more complicated, but it was clear that the starting point from the cottages was exactly halfway along the wall from the archway to the road end of number 1. And the end point was exactly halfway between the boundary with number 3, and the outer boundary where the plots join the road's verge. More string and measuring tapes, and that boundary was also amicably agreed. Most of the grassy paths went.
Phase ll
By 1988, with a growing family, the owners of 3 / 4 decided to make further changes, by incorporating the old bakehouse and lavatory block into their cottage. The lavatory block had not been used for many years and the bakehouse was just used as a coal store. A single storey extension was built to the footprint of the existing structures, within the boundary.
This comprised two rooms, and was built with Hornton stone including some purchased from the parish council who had decided to demolish a crumbling old store shed close to the village hall.
Phase lll - 3 cottages become 2
A number of changes of ownership had occurred to numbers 1 and 2 by 2011, and in fact by this time they were in the same ownership. So the owners decided to join the two, as 3 and 4 had been joined for almost half a century,
This
work was done joining the two kitchens (in the former pig sties) to make one
larger kitchen diner at the now front of the property, on the lane.
As of 2024, this is now Blue Row up to date. It still looks much the same from the front - the garden side - as it did over 100 years ago !
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